Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

We posted last week about the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s acknowledgement that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin never provided mammograms; when Gov. Scott Walker recently ended PPWI’s eligibility to participate in a state program that provided cancer screenings to low-income women, mainstream media erupted, predictably.

“Scott Walker cuts cancer screenings for uninsured women, offers no alternatives,” read Moore’s first statement on Twitter, the online messaging site that has some 200 million account holders.

“Walker kills women’s cancer screening program for political gain,” her second tweet claimed.

So did Walker kill a cancer-screening program for poor women?

In a word: No.

1. The contract in question was for helping women sign up for and get the screenings, not the screenings themselves. The screenings are separate. Some are done by Planned Parenthood, but they also are done by other health care providers.

2. Walker’s administration did end Planned Parenthood’s contract — but neither the assistance Planned Parenthood provided, nor the screenings themselves, ever ended. Indeed, the change put the four counties on par with how the program is handled in most of the rest of the state.

When we asked Moore spokeswoman Nicole Williams if she had additional evidence to back Moore’s charges against Walker, she provided a news release from Planned Parenthood. But that release made clear both the assistance and the screenings would continue.

So let’s see how Moore, who counts Planned Parenthood as an ally, got it all wrong.

That last line is a pretty strong statement from a newspaper who publicly wished PPWI a “Happy75th Birthday” and claims aborted fetal tissue research is necessary for our state’s economy.

Unfortunately, mainstream media swirls around in a liberal abyss. Journalists are (finally, perhaps?) starting to recognize that not every single word uttered by Planned Parenthood is accurate. But because abortion is perceived as such a necessity — for the poor, for those conceived in rape, for those diagnosed with a fetal abnormality, or, for those who believe the lie that a baby would derail their plans for the future — the MJS again proves that liberals are able to hold their noses and look the other way when it comes to abortion providers and abortion supporters.

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In mid-December, the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced that Planned Parenthood was no longer eligible to participate in a program that provided women with free cancer screenings.

Predictably, Planned Parenthood went ballistic, along with media sympathetic to its cause.

First, we have this Madison Capital Timesarticle distraught over Planned Parenthood’s loss:

County governments have always had what’s known as the first right of refusal for the Wisconsin Well Woman Program funds, which the targeted four counties had always utilized in order to let the state funds flow through to Planned Parenthood’s Appleton clinic.

“In other counties, women go to a county health department, may be told to get a test, but then have to go somewhere else to have it done,” says Nicole Safar, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s public policy director. “We were able to do everything at one location.”

We thought, wait a minute… we’ve always known Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms. When PLW took out a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in May, one of our points on the ad was that PPWI doesn’t actually do mammograms. We would’ve been sued for all our non-profit worth if that was false in any way.

And then along came this article in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Through the contract, the state had paid for two case workers from Planned Parenthood, which doesn’t perform the tests but instead helps low-income women sign up for and receive them.

Planned Parenthood does not do the sign-up work for cancer screenings in other counties outside the four involved in the contract in question. In most counties, including Milwaukee County, it is handled by public health departments.

This is a case of some clever wording and sympathetic reporting.

I tried to call the Appleton Planned Parenthood and the voice recording said they are temporarily closed for the day. Clearly no mammograms going on there. However, it is always a good sign when an abortion facility is closed for the day!

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We have written in the past about the City of Milwaukee’s efforts to combat infant mortality — the campaign’s image of a baby sleeping with a knife stirred national debate about the use of graphic images in advertising; the pro-abortion mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, launched the campaign; and the initiative is being led by a former Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin official.

And now, according to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinelarticle, it appears the infant mortality awareness effort is having trouble getting off the ground (but there are no issues with spending the $10 million earmarked.)

Image, below, from the MJS:

We sometimes toss around the question of, “What would we do with a $1 million grant?” Imagine the pro-life possibilities.

But for the City of Milwaukee, $1 million in salaries, travel and consultants is apparently just a drop in the bucket. And even the campaign’s task force has doubts about whether it will succeed.

Respect for human dignity is essential in the authorization and conduct of scientific research, a point underscored by numerous and horrific past failures to establish or follow such protocols. Yet as a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with substantial coursework in the biological sciences, I heard the declaration from more than one of my professors that the ethical questions surrounding pushing the boundaries of scientific inquiry should be “set aside and dealt with later” if there was “great potential” for medical breakthroughs.

Imagine what atrocities can be justified by such a philosophy! We can do better. I have introduced Assembly Bill 214 to establish reasonable standards for human tissue research and to prohibit the sale or use of aborted fetal body parts for experimentation or other purposes.

The chancellor of UW-Madison sent the this letter [PDF] attacking Rep. Jacque’s bill to all legislators. Spin, spin, spin. The letter is a testament to the degree of intellectual rationalization and modernism at UW-Madison. See the line, “Nothing we are doing is illegal.”………….. Which is the whole point of the legislation! Everything Hitler did was legal, too, remember that?

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A follow-up post from yesterday’s post on using aborted fetal tissue in research.

On Sunday, there was a column in the Milwaukee Journal opposing a ban on aborted fetal tissue research.

PLW’s communications director Virginia Zignego submitted a letter to the editor and it will be published tomorrow (or you can read it online today.)

And here is the Milwaukee Journal editorial board on the issue, stating moral concerns hold no sway in this brave new world we’re living in.

In a blog post on the issue, the Milwaukee Journal states they will be publishing commentary from Medical College of Wisconsin researchers this week (MCW performs research with aborted body parts, as does UW-Madison). You can also vote in a poll about whether you’re for/against fetal tissue research.

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The below article was in the Sept. 10 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Sept. 11 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, writes about Rep. Andre Jacque’s bill, currently in the Wisconsin legislature, that would ban the use of aborted fetal body parts in research projects in the state. Read the bill here. Despite Still’s lengthy list of medical research benefiting from aborted fetal tissue, one cannot escape the fact that the purported benefit derives from human beings that are killed and experimented upon without their consent.

The legislation bans persons from knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving, or transferring a fetal body part. It also bans persons from knowingly providing, receiving, or using for experimentation a fetal body part. Fetal body part is defined to mean a cell, tissue, organ, or other part of an unborn child who is aborted by an induced abortion.

University of Wisconsin (UW) officials already attacked the bill, claiming that it will have a “chilling effect” on the biomedical research UW Madison is currently conducting using aborted fetal tissue. Click here for a Capital Times article detailing the UW’s opposition to AB 214 and Rep. Jacque’s and PLW’s response.

There is documented evidence of UW conducting research on human fetal brain and pancreatic tissue, most recently a 2000 fetal brain cell study conducted by Su-Chun Zhang of the UW-Madison Department of Medical Sciences used immature neural cells from fetal human brain tissue of 15-20 gestation weeks “after elective termination of intrauterine pregnancies” to study neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. The study acknowledged Dr. Dennis Christenson, a late-term abortionist, for his “assistance in this project.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Ban on fetal tissue research would be a mistake

Tom Still

A report last week in PLoS Biology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, offers a ready example of why Wisconsin lawmakers should tread carefully around a proposal to ban research using fetal tissue.

Researchers at the University of California and Texas A&M discovered that a somewhat mysterious soft tissue found in the fetus during early development in the womb plays a vital role in the formation of mature beta cells, the sole source of the body’s insulin.

Scientists believe the discovery may lead to new ways of addressing Type I and Type II diabetes, conditions that have reached epidemic proportions in the United States and beyond.

It just the latest example of how researchers in Wisconsin and beyond use cells derived from human fetal tissue to pursue cures for chronic diseases, to develop and produce vaccines, and to conduct basic research on a wide range of human health issues.

A bill introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature would make it a crime for Wisconsin researchers to continue using those cells, even though they have done so legally, ethically and effectively for 50 years or more.

Lawmakers who believe they are merely standing firm against abortion should think twice about the far-reaching effects of this bill on medical research and the state’s innovation economy.

Assembly Bill 214 and Senate Bill 172 would prohibit “a person knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving or otherwise transferring a fetal body part in this state.”

The identical bills define cells and tissues as fetal body parts, and they also ban “providing, receiving or using for experimentation a fetal body part” in Wisconsin – even if there was no “valuable consideration.”

If passed, the bill would effectively halt valuable work in scores of laboratories at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Medical College of Wisconsin and beyond, shut down long-standing research projects and essentially chase many researchers and emerging companies out of the state.

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As we’ve written before, infant mortality in the City of Milwaukee is among the highest in the nation; black infants are three times more likely to die than white infants.

To combat this alarming statistic, the City of Milwaukee has launched a “Strong Baby” initiative, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The winners of the Strong Baby casting call were breastfed, are up-to-date on immunizations and project “strong baby” qualities, city officials said.

The press conference was upbeat, celebrating healthy babies. But a somber mission was behind the message — that too many other babies in Milwaukee aren’t getting the same strong start. During the press conference, babies giggled and smiled while their mothers bounced them in their arms.

From 2005-2008 the city recorded 499 infant deaths, the mayor said [on average, in just one year, Milwaukee County residents account for 3,528 abortions, or roughly 43% of the state’s total abortion figures]. For every 1,000 births, 11 infants died. Black infants were three times more likely to die than white infants [ black infants are three times more likely to be aborted as well]. In 2009 an additional 122 infants died; a substantial portion of the deaths were preventable.

Little Madyson Dixon, in pigtails for the press conference, earlier charmed Murphy, the alderman, when he finished his comments. As Murphy turned to leave the podium, the baby blew him a kiss. He reached out for her hand and kissed it.

“This is the best press conference I’ve ever attended,” Murphy said, noting he and his wife five years ago adopted a child from China, and have been learning what it takes to be good parents.

Madyson started waving at six months, said her mother, Kia Brazil, and grandmother, Paula Young. She also loves to blow kisses, and can snap her fingers at 11 months.

The juxtaposition of happy, healthy babies behind a [pro-abortion] mayor reciting statistics about other babies dying was not lost on the parents of the Strong Baby campaign winners.

Apparently only the untimely deaths of “Every child a wanted child” are worthy of mourning.Unfortunately, for mothers and their children, missing from the MJS and the City’s information campaigns is something, anything, about the risks induced abortion has. One of the causes of infant death is preterm delivery. Abortions increase the risk of low birth weight in future pregnancies by a factor of three, and of premature birth by a factor of two.

The missing link is hardly a surprise though — the MJS never misses an opportunity to stump for Planned Parenthood, and Mayor Tom Barrett, a pro-abortion Catholic, is consistently endorsed by both Planned Parenthood and NARAL.Don’t women at least deserve the facts?

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Back in May, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelwrote about an effort by United Way of Greater Milwaukee to reduce teen pregnancy in Milwaukee. The effort involved an ad campaign using Disney-type fairy princesses; the ad campaign was put on hold due to concerns of copyright infringement.

Eliminating teenage pregnancy is something we’re all in favor of, but mixing United Way, Planned Parenthood, sex ed and Disney princesses into the mix is hardly the solution.

United Way is tied very closely to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (click here for a 2010 pledge form, listing PPWI as a “Community Health Charity”). In addition, United Way and PPWI are members of a “Healthy Youth Alliance,” pushing comprehensive sex ed across Wisconsin. The list of ties goes on and on.

The point is this: United Way refers these young girls to PPWI for treatment or “services.” PPWI has been shown willing to cover up purported statutory rape, sending these young girls right back to their abusers. It’s a vicious circle, rather than a deplorable societal injustice moving toward an end point.

Through its ties to Planned Parenthood, United Way is assisting in the cover-up of statutory rape, exacerbating the problem and allowing it to continue.

Continuing to push “comprehensive” sex ed on young girls starting at age 8, and then wondering why the teenage pregnancy rate is so high, is akin to holding a lighted match next to a piece of paper and then wondering why it catches on fire. If young girls are told it’s OK to have sex with a wink and a nod, and there are cultural factors at play here as well, that’s something an ad campaign can’t fix.

I highly recommend reading this article about teenage pregnancy in urban high schools, titled “Nobody gets married anymore, Mister.” It’s long but worth the read. It will make you think, and wonder where our society is going. Excerpt here:

Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.

None of this is lost on my students. In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant. Other girls in school want to pat their stomachs. Their friends throw baby showers at which meager little gifts are given. After delivery, the girls return to school with baby pictures on their cell phones or slipped into their binders, which they eagerly share with me. Often they sit together in my classes, sharing insights into parenting, discussing the taste of Pedialite or the exhaustion that goes with the job. On my way home at night, I often see my students in the projects that surround our school, pushing their strollers or hanging out on their stoops instead of doing their homework.

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Partial-birth abortionist Fredrik Broekhuizen had the below letter-to-the-editor in the June 11 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Broekhuizen stated, in part:

I am appalled that my patients’ well-being doesn’t matter to our state Legislature, whose Joint Finance Committee has voted to stop the Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin from receiving state and federal grants (“Budget to rein in aid for family planning,” June 4).

I spent a day recently at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Milwaukee screening patients for cervical cancer. This basic health care saves lives, and as the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, I am proud to provide it. Most of our patients are uninsured or underinsured and have nowhere else to go.

I am proud that some Planned Parenthood clinics offer abortions along with cancer screenings, contraception, prenatal care, testing for sexually transmitted infections and other vital services. Safe clinical settings are needed where patients can find physicians to have safe, legal abortions. Countless studies have demonstrated that access to comprehensive reproductive health care improves women’s health and saves their lives.

Broekhuizen testified in U.S. District Court in 2004 about how he does abortions and admitted much of the same in Planned Parenthood v. Doyle in 1999.

Partial-birth abortion is STILL legal in Wisconsin, since the “exceptions” cases were written into the law [document here from the State of WI]:

The law does not prohibit a partial-birth abortion when required to save a woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness or physical injury and there is no other medical procedure to save her. These life-endangering circumstances include those caused by the pregnancy.

In his letter-to-the-editor, Broekhuizen fails to note his career as an abortionist. Interesting, because as little as 7 years ago, while testifying in District Court in 2004, Broekhuizen went into graphic detail about how he performs abortions, what the best method is, and so on. Seems like the title of “abortionist” is no longer something to be proud of.

A child welfare worker who impregnated an emotionally troubled woman he had investigated for child abuse ordered the woman to get an abortion or she would lose everything, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court and an interview with the woman’s attorney.

“He said, ‘If I have to lose everything, then you have to lose everything too,'” the attorney, Joy Bertrand, quoted the woman as saying.

The woman – Theola Nealy – refused to have an abortion.

Within weeks, Nealy’s two children – a daughter then 5 years old and a 3-year-old son – were taken into state custody. Years later, those children have not been returned.

And the baby fathered by the caseworker – now almost 3 years old – continues to live with her father, Peter J. Nelsen.

“Nelsen was assigned to protect the most vulnerable among us, and he preyed upon them,” Bertrand said.

So much is wrong here. But this is hardly the first case of a social worker intimidating those in his/her care. Bishop Victor Galeone of St. Augustine, Florida, revealed last yearthat his mother resisted pressure from a government social worker to abort him during the Great Depression. A Pennsylvania foster care mother had all of her foster children removed from her home after she told a newspaper that a Philadelphia Department of Human Services caseworker forced one of the children to have an abortion. The list goes on and on.

Do social workers receive job training from Margaret Sanger’s writings? The founder of Planned Parenthood had much to say about the poor and erasing the poor from society.

Margaret Sanger: Instead of helping the poor, she considered them slum dwellers (particularly Blacks, Hispanics, and Jewish immigrants) who would soon overrun the boundaries of their slums, contaminating the better elements of society with their diseases and inferior genes. Throughout the 200+ pages of this book Sanger called for the elimination of “human weeds,” for the cessation of charity, for the segregation of “morons, misfits, and maladjusted,” and for the sterilization of “genetically inferior races.” She argued that organized attempts to help the poor were the “surest sign that our civilization has bred, is breeding, and is perpetuating. . . defectives, delinquents, and dependents.” She called for coercive sterilization, mandatory segregation, and rehabilitative concentration camps for all inferior Blacks, Hispanics, poor Whites, and Catholics.